Surgical navigation systems assist users in locating objects in one or more coordinate systems. Surgical navigation systems may employ light signals, sound waves, magnetic fields, radio frequency signals, etc. in order to track positions and/or orientations of the objects. Often the surgical navigation system includes tracking devices attached to the objects being tracked. A surgical navigation localizer cooperates with the tracking devices to ultimately determine positions and/or orientations of the objects. The surgical navigation system monitors movement of the objects via the tracking devices.
Surgeries in which surgical navigation systems are used include neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery, among others. Typically, surgical tools and anatomy being treated are tracked together in real-time in a common coordinate system with their relative positions and/or orientations shown on a display. In some cases, this visualization may include computer-generated images of the surgical tools and/or the anatomy displayed in conjunction with real video images of the surgical tools and/or the anatomy to provide mixed reality visualization. This visualization assists surgeons in performing the surgery. However, because the display is often located remotely from the surgical tools and/or the anatomy being treated, and because the view of the real video images is not usually aligned with the surgeon's point of view, the visualization can be awkward to the surgeon, especially when the surgeon regularly switches his/her gaze between the display and the actual surgical tools and/or the anatomy being treated. There is a need in the art to overcome one or more of these disadvantages.
Head-mounted displays (HMDs) are gaining popularity in certain industries, particularly the gaming industry. HMDs provide computer-generated images that are seemingly present in the real world. There are many surgical applications in which such HMDs could be employed. However, there is a need in the art for systems and methods to integrate such HMDs into surgical navigation systems. For example, surgical navigation systems often require registration of the surgical tools and/or the anatomy being treated to the common coordinate system. Typically such registration is performed with little visualization assistance making such registration cumbersome and difficult to quickly verify. When using HMDs for visualization, there is also a need to register the HMD to the common coordinate system, along with the surgical tools and/or the anatomy.